Nobody could have predicted:

T. Boone Pickens has cut his massive order for wind turbines from GE by more than half.

The energy investor, who made wind power a key part of his plan to wean Americans off foreign oil, said Tuesday he will now take delivery of 300 turbines, which he will use for wind farms in Canada and Minnesota.

None of the turbines will come to Texas, as originally planned.

Meanwhile, Pickens continues his campaign to persuade Americans to use natural gas to fuel heavy trucks, rather than diesel. Doing so, he said, could cut Middle East oil imports in half.

I’m not a fan of T. Boone Pickens or the Pickens Plan. I think he is a scam artist, and I don’t think converting our vehicle fleet to natural gas engines is viable. Read more here:

• Democrats Should Not be Praising T. Boone Pickens
• T. Boone Pickens Caught in Two Lies in One Short Interview
• Boone Pickens Caught in Several More Lies on Frontline
• T. Boone Pickens Thinks Obama Will Fall for the Pickens Plan
• For the Pickens Plan to Work, People Have to Misunderstand It
• Not Credible: T. Boone Pickens Floods Online Poll With Votes, Brags About Results

David Roberts flagged this exceptionally bad NYT article which attacks Vice President Gore for… putting his money where is mouth is. He summarizes:

Professional Gore haters, who make their living peddling lies, cast an absurd charge against Gore. The charge goes in the headline. It goes in the first paragraphs of the story. Then in paragraph 32 it’s revealed that the charge is baseless. And John Broder wasn’t embarrassed to have this appear under his byline.

Oh, and to state the obvious: even if it were true, nobody but a professional Gore hater could possibly find anything wrong with someone investing in the very solutions they say are necessary to save the world. The non-Gore-demented might even find that a perfectly predictable way for a capitalist to respond.

I wonder how John Broder covered the release of the Pickens Plan, which advocates federal policies designed to drastically increase the amount of natural gas used as transportation fuel. Boone Pickens, of course, is the founder of the Orwellian Clean Energy Fuels Corporation, which is the largest provider of natural gas for transportation in the country. Did Mr. Broder point out this apparent conflict of interest?  Here is what he wrote:

Mr. Pickens, 80, the founder and chairman of BP Capital Management, is the major supporter of a national energy plan announced last month to wean the United States of its dependence on foreign oil by turning to domestically produced natural gas. He has pledged $58 million for a marketing campaign that he hopes will force the presidential candidates into a discussion of his ideas.

No mention whatsoever of the fact that Mr. Pickens is one of the biggest investors in natural gas in the United States, and stands to profit substantially if his plan is enacted. Why the discrepancy, Mr. Broder?

Cameron Scott at The Thin Green Line points out that this story was pushed by Marc Morano, one of the least credible individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of running circles around. Why is the New York Times running stories being pushed by Marc Morano? Are they trying to destroy their own credibility?

Cameron also asks another good question:

Republican lawmakers—including Kyl, Cornyn, Coburn and Hatch—as well as a few Democrats are heavily invested in oil and gas and coal companies. For the GOP, the oil and gas is the sixth largest recipient of investments; automotive is the eighth and other energy companies are 24th and 25th. (See the Democrats’ profile here: oil and gas ranks seventh and automotive 25th.)

James Inhofe, long the lead cheerleader of climate denialism and Morano’s longtime boss, had at least 10 percent of his assets in fossil fuel in 2007.

Where are the articles on that?

Unfortunately, the Times wasn’t alone in leveling this baseless attack.

The London Telegraph ran a shorter version of the same story, as did other outlets.

And once newspapers are talking about the story, it must be news. Right, Mika? Diane Sawyer seems to think so as well.

Gore’s response to this criticism has been spot on. He told Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski, “Of course I invest according to my beliefs and values.” And he told Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer, “I am proud to [have] put my money where my mouth is for the past 30 years.”

I’m eagerly looking forward to the day when Brzezinski, Sawyer or Broder challenges Senator Inhofe or T. Boone Pickens, or Exxon-Mobile for that matter, about their obvious conflicts of interests.

Update: Brad Johnson points out that Diane Sawyer repeatedly invoked Glenn Beck in her attack of Gore. He also takes note of the fact out that Beck mentioned the Diane Sawyer segment three times, and clearly enjoyed the recognition from Sawyer.

This guy is completely insane:

T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are “entitled” to some of Iraq’s crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq’s vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.

“They’re opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world … We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil. “Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars.”

How about that?

John Podesta:

Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel—it produces less than half as much carbon pollution as coal. Recent technology advancements make affordable the development of unconventional natural gas resources. This creates an unprecedented opportunity to use gas as a bridge fuel to a 21st-century energy economy that relies on efficiency, renewable sources, and low-carbon fossil fuels such as natural gas.

Center For American Progress Memo, Natural Gas: A Bridge Fuel for the 21st Century –

S.F. Chronicle:

California’s Air Resources Board on Thursday approved a first-in-the-world regulation to minimize the amount of carbon in fuel, putting California on the cutting edge of promoting alternative fuels in a bid to combat global warming.

The regulation will require fuel manufacturers to cut the so-called carbon intensity of fuels sold in the state 10 percent by 2020 – lowering the amount of greenhouse gases released for every unit of energy produced. If the regulation’s goal is reached, it will account for 10 percent of the state’s overall goal for reducing greenhouse gases by 2020.

As Solve Climate explains:

The board’s members envision biofuels created from municipal and agriculture waste along with low-carbon, non-food-stock fuels. Some of the anticipated innovations are in their infancy – jet fuel from algae and trucks powered by used cooking oil; others don’t yet exist but could be inspired by the Obama administration’s strong financial support for advanced fuel and energy development.

T. Boone Pickens, in a statement provided by email, sees this is as a win for his ill-advised natural gas vehicle scheme:

“I am very supportive of the California Air Resources Board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard adopted today. It will greatly reduce our dependency on foreign oil by promoting alternative fuels that are low in carbon, such as natural gas and biomethane, into the market. Reducing greenhouse gases and harmful pollutants is the right step to take for our health, our economy and our security. .

Making the best use of our abundant domestic energy resources such as natural gas to replace imported oil is a major component of the Pickens Plan. The LCFS—a market-driven effort that requires no taxpayer dollars—gives consumers greater choice to buy American at the pump.”